5 Hurdles Before First Pitch Thrown In Hartford

HARTFORD — The city is moving forward with a project to redevelop land north of downtown.

The first piece of that plan is to build a 9,000-spectator minor league baseball stadium near the intersection of Main and Trumbull streets. City officials have cited the timeline — it must be completed and open by April 2016 — as a reason they moved quickly to approve it. A majority of city council members on Tuesday voted in favor of the proposal, which would bring the New Britain Rock Cats to Hartford.

The $350 million development would also include retail, housing, office space, a brewery and parking.

But before DoNo Hartford LLC, the group of developers heading the project, can break ground, there's a few hurdles left to clear. They are:

Special Permit. The developers must seek a special permit from the city's planning and zoning commission to build the stadium. The commission last month agreed to an amendment that would, under zoning regulations, allow the city to develop a ballpark in the downtown north area. But it also gave an unfavorable recommendation to the proposal, saying it didn't fit with Hartford's plan of conservation and development.

Shifting Streets. The planning and zoning commission and the city council must approve three proposals that would realign streets to accommodate the construction of the ballpark. The lines of Trumbull Street between Main and Market streets and the lines of Pleasant Street must be relocated. Windsor Street between Trumbull and Pleasant streets must be discontinued.

Rock Cats Lease. The city must finalize and sign a 25-year lease with the New Britain Rock Cats, who would begin playing at the Hartford stadium in spring 2016. Officials have said the team has agreed to a non-relocation clause, meaning it must stay in Hartford for the term of the lease. The Rock Cats would pay the city $500,000 a year for the first 15 years, and $600,000 annually in the final 10 years.

DoNo Hartford Lease. The city must finalize and sign a 25-year lease with DoNo Hartford LLC for control of the stadium. Under the plan, the city will lease the ballpark from DoNo Hartford LLC and then sublease it to the Rock Cats. The city would pay DoNo Hartford about $4.3 million per year for the first five years, with a 5-percent increase in the 6th, 11th and 16th years of the lease. Proposals adopted by the council require the developers to cap the total cost of construction on the ballpark at $56 million.

Project Labor Agreement. Developers and unions are negotiating a project labor agreement — a legally binding pact to assure union work — in connection with the plan. Officials have said that 80 percent of the ballpark construction could be union, though the details are still being worked out.